I use the XFCE version, it’s around 400 MB idle, fluxbox should be even less I think.

I work for a big enterprise, we have RHEL on all our Linux servers save for a few that are SuSe for SAP.

The concept of having to compile something yourself is basically foreign to me

There’s no need to, what software do you need that you can’t find on Mint repositories?

having to basically rely on a built-in app database/store to easily install apps… Kinda stinks to me, and not being able to simply download an installer from a website and having the program, whatever program, up and running reliably within a minute, the concept seems ridiculous

Having an app repository is way more secure than downloading software from random websites, it’s also way faster.

But it’s fine if you don’t like it, each person has its own preferences.

I don’t because no antivirus can protect you from yourself, I learned that the hard way while I was still using Windows many years ago.

I had antivirus and antimalware on Windows and I kept them updated and ran scans regularly, almost religiously, than I got a malware that antivirus couldn’t detect (they take a while to be updated with new viruses/malware that constantly come out) and the only way to remove it was a blank new install following a specific procedure to clean it all.

That day I understood that no matter how attentive you are about your antivirus, you’re never really protected until it’s you who learns what to do and what not while accessing the web, so I did a bit of research about how to better configure my PC, how to better recognize phishing/scamming, using adblocker, don’t download random software, stuff like that.

I basically learned “how to behave”. I stopped using antivirus/antimalware on Windows and I didn’t catch a virus since, then I switched to Linux and I still apply the same principles of “good behavior”.

That’s not to say I’m immune to viruses, I’m certainly not, but my mindset now is that if I ever catch a virus, it will be my fault for doing something I shouldn’t have done, and I’ll do my best to learn from it instead of relying on software to do that for me.

Overwhelming beginners with more than they can chew is not the best way to welcome them to Linux, giving them the chance to learn a bit at a time is instead.

There are distros that need little to no intelligence to set up and maintain

It’s not a matter of intelligence but prior knowledge, Arch wiki is the best thing ever for everyone, even if you don’t use Arch, BUT you need some Linux knowledge - at least Linux “lingo” - to be able to understand it.

That’s something a Linux newbie doesn’t have yet, exactly the reason why Arch is not recommended for newbies.

Being lightweight or not doesn’t depend on the distro but the desktop manager (the graphic interface). Unlike Windows, the graphic in Linux is separated from the system so you can use different desktop managers on the same distros.

The lightest DE is LXQT but it’s pretty barebone, XFCE has more features while still being very light, avoid GNOME and KDE.

That being said, I suggest you try Linux MX XFCE or Mint XFCE first, if that’s not light enough for your liking, try Lubuntu, that’s Ubuntu with LXQT as default DE.

That’s if you use opensource drivers, good for AMD but not so much for NVIDIA.

There’s not a “best” distro for gaming, it very much depends on what games you play.

If you want to play latest releases, a rolling release is most probably the best option for you, I hear Suse Tumbleweed is very good if you don’t like Arch.

If you want less “aggressive” updates but not exactly a stable, you can try Solus, it’s a sort of middle-ground between the 2.

If your games are not the latest ones, a Debian-based distro is a very good option, rock-solid, updated enough and without any “extra fluff”.

I personally use Linux MX XFCE and I’m very happy about it.

While I could understand this approach for big enterprises, to avoid the hassle of managing thousands of employees PCs, I don’t understand it for home use.

I mean, people who want a PC at home, want it for the multi-purpose capabilities and power in gaming, not to mention full control over it.

Those who only use the PC for email, browsing the internet and watching videos, are better served with a tablet, they’re so powerful nowadays that you don’t really need a PC for those simple tasks, students would be better off with chromebooks, they’re even cheaper, a few types of jobs, like professional graphics for example, are better done with a MAC, and probably other things I’m forgetting right now.

I fully switched to Linux years ago, but if I were still using Windows, I know for sure I’d be furious if my computer stopped working only because the internet went down or MS servers had some downtime.

I’d love to know what they know that I don’t to be so sure this won’t blow up in their faces.

This. Stadia was one of the last example, they’ll kill this new service too after a few years, it’s not worth to even consider using.

TIL what the GAFAM empire is.

Besides that, I think the following quote is key:

Google realized that most XMPP interactions were between Google Talk users anyway. They didn’t care about respecting a protocol they were not 100% in control. So they pulled the plug and announced they would not be federated anymore

I never used Google Talk nor XMPP but I gather XMPP didn’t have enough users to sustain itself.

Chat systems (and Twitter/Facebook similar platforms) need a very high amount of users to be “sustainable” because they are centered on individuals.

The fediverse doesn’t need that many because is centered around meaningful discussions, having too many is even counterproductive because discussions derail into shitposting (look at reddit).

I agree with the blogger when they say

We should not try to include as many people as we can at all cost. We should be honest and ensure people join the Fediverse because they share some of the values behind it

Mainly because if we did, lemmy would go down the drain as much as reddit has done the last few years.

I want Meta blocked because I don’t want their shit coming over here, much more than being worried about them trying to extinguish the fediverse, tho you can be sure they will indeed try.

It’s most probably IBM forcing it, but yeah it’s dumb.

cause enough friction that enterprises will start looking to other distros

Highly unlikely IMO, unless someone else enters the market of commercial support.

I’ve been working for big enterprises for decades, not IT companies but big nonetheless.

The reason why Linux could “break the barrier” and enter the enterprise market (at least in EU) is that one day Red Hat became a company capable of guarantee support by means of support contracts.

Big enterprises don’t care a product is the best in the world IF they cannot have a contract with some entity capable of commercially supporting it every time there’s a problem.

I believe it’s very stupid on IBM part to make this move, but as long as they maintain their contracts, big enterprises will stay on Red Hat, they won’t care about what will happen to independent developers, they wouldn’t be using their software anyway.

Very sad, but at enterprise level there are not many choices when it comes to opensource software.

Thanks, by reading “RHEL going closed source” first thing I thought is that would violate the GPL license, but the article you linked seems to indicate that’s not the case.

CentOS is basically RHEL without Red Hat commercial stuff, so sources will still be freely available, just not directly from Red Had, am I understanding it correctly?

Leaking industry secrets is a much bigger concern that boosting productivity a little bit.

We’re talking about very specialized engineering work, it’s not something you can totally rely on a bot to do, though it might help sometimes, it’s fully understandable for specialized companies to want to ban GPT internally, until there’s a way for them to host a totally internal one.

Will they ever stop creating new services only to shut them down a few years later?

No wonder people don’t trust them anymore.

Fantastic news! thanks

beware NVIDIA tho:

However, Valve notes the fact that enabling hardware acceleration on NVIDIA GPUs may cause X11 to crash. As such, hardware acceleration will be disabled by default for NVIDIA systems. In addition, Valve says that DPI scaling may not work correctly when hardware acceleration is disabled.

Of course they’re doing it intentionally, what did you expect? They’ll use any means they can to downplay the protest and prevent people from leaving.

But honestly, I don’t mean to be harsh, but if some people believe all the shit reddit throws at them, and they don’t even try to see for themselves, they probably “deserve” to stay there.

I’m perfectly fine without Ponzi schemes thanks.

p.s. for those who don’t know